Megaslumps

Scripture for Today: Psalm 88:17-18 “All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. You have taken from me friend and neighbor – darkness is my closest friend.”

Although this image looks like an alien landscape, it is actually a view of Northern Siberia. These “megaslumps” are sinkholes in the Arctic permafrost. The craters are formed from the melting ice buckling the land. They are growing larger as the greenhouse gas is released into the atmosphere, leading to more warming and thawing. It becomes a vicious cycle, changing the terrain for centuries to come. These depressions in the landscape are aptly named, “megaslump”, as the earth turns in on itself.

Today’s verse as well as the entire psalm could well be called an emotional megaslump. The author feels abandoned by friend and neighbor, feeling utterly alone and forsaken. All that is seemingly left are enemies who threaten to engulf him in total darkness. What a dismal picture of the depression he is experiencing. The more alone he feels, the farther he sinks into that black hole; another vicious cycle. His emotions threaten to completely overwhelm him.

This must be how Christ felt on the cross when cut off from the Father for the first time in all eternity. He was betrayed and forsaken by His closest friends. He was despised and rejected, “like one from whom people hid their faces” (Is. 53:3) He endured that darkness to give me hope. He took up my pain and bore my suffering so that I can look up and be rescued. He has pierced my darkness with the wonderful light of His love. No matter how black the night, with Him there can be joy in the morning!